Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
-
Hospital readmission is a significant problem for patients with complex chronic illnesses such as liver cirrhosis. ⋯ Hospital readmissions frequently occur in patients with cirrhosis and are associated with liver disease severity. The impact of functional and social factors on readmissions is unclear.
-
Observational Study
Shared Decision-Making During Inpatient Rounds: Opportunities for Improvement in Patient Engagement and Communication.
Shared decision-making (SDM) improves patient engagement and may improve outpatient health outcomes. Little is known about inpatient SDM. ⋯ Important opportunities exist to improve inpatient SDM. Team size, number of learners, patient census, and type of decision being made did not affect SDM, suggesting that even large, busy services can perform SDM if properly trained.
-
Apparent increase in mortality associated with being admitted to hospital on a weekend compared to weekdays has led to controversial policy changes to weekend staffing in the United Kingdom. Studies in the United States have been inconclusive and diagnosis specific, and whether to implement such changes is subject to ongoing debate. ⋯ Differences in mortality of weekend admissions may be attributed to underlying differences in patient characteristics and severity of illness and is subject to large between-diagnoses heterogeneity. Increasing weekend services may not result in desired reduction in inpatient mortality rate.